By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Marines plan to buy fewer bomb-resistant vehicles than planned despite pressure from lawmakers who are determined to spend billions of dollars on the vehicles.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Bush pushes Democrats to OK war funding
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 15 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush sternly pressed Democrats to approve money to fund the Iraq war "without strings and without delay" before leaving town for the Christmas holidays, something congressional leaders have already indicated they will not do.
2 hours, 15 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush sternly pressed Democrats to approve money to fund the Iraq war "without strings and without delay" before leaving town for the Christmas holidays, something congressional leaders have already indicated they will not do.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
After Annapolis, hurdles for Israeli and Palestinian leaders
Observers warn that Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert may be too weak to keep peace efforts on track.
By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 29, 2007 edition
By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 29, 2007 edition
Can Iran and Hamas Sink Annapolis?
By SCOTT MACLEOD
Wed Nov 28, 12:25 PM ET
As would-be peacemakers bask in the international limelight of the Annapolis conference, back in the Middle East two other parties are serving up notice that no deal will come to pass, if they can help it: Iran and its Palestinian ally, Hamas. "The Annapolis conference was already a failure," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.
Wed Nov 28, 12:25 PM ET
As would-be peacemakers bask in the international limelight of the Annapolis conference, back in the Middle East two other parties are serving up notice that no deal will come to pass, if they can help it: Iran and its Palestinian ally, Hamas. "The Annapolis conference was already a failure," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.
Recapping the Annapolis Mideast Conference
Aaron David Miller
Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; 12:30 PM
Aaron David Miller, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar and an adviser to the State Department on Israeli-Palestinian issues for 25 years, was online Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 12:30 p.m. to analyze the outcome of the Mideast Conference in Annapolis, Md., which is scheduled to end Tuesday.
Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; 12:30 PM
Aaron David Miller, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar and an adviser to the State Department on Israeli-Palestinian issues for 25 years, was online Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 12:30 p.m. to analyze the outcome of the Mideast Conference in Annapolis, Md., which is scheduled to end Tuesday.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Iran leader vows no concessions on nukes
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 34 minutes ago
ARDABIL, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed again Wednesday not to make concessions to the West over Iran's nuclear program, while an Iranian newspaper reproached the hard-line leader for his attacks on critics in the country's conservative camp.
1 hour, 34 minutes ago
ARDABIL, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed again Wednesday not to make concessions to the West over Iran's nuclear program, while an Iranian newspaper reproached the hard-line leader for his attacks on critics in the country's conservative camp.
Bush Presses Congress for Iraq War Funding
By Scott Stearns
White House
21 November 2007
President Bush is pressing Congress to approve his latest budget request for the war in Iraq, where he says leaders are beginning to make progress toward political reconciliation. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story
White House
21 November 2007
President Bush is pressing Congress to approve his latest budget request for the war in Iraq, where he says leaders are beginning to make progress toward political reconciliation. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story
Middle East Peace Conference Convenes Next Week
By Meredith Buel
Washington
21 November 2007
Listen to Buel report
The United States has invited nearly 50 countries and international organizations to a Middle East peace conference next week designed as a springboard for Israel and the Palestinians to begin negotiations toward a solution of their conflict.
Washington
21 November 2007
Listen to Buel report
The United States has invited nearly 50 countries and international organizations to a Middle East peace conference next week designed as a springboard for Israel and the Palestinians to begin negotiations toward a solution of their conflict.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Washington In Iraq: A Convenient Truth
Iraq is not at war with Iran, but Washington appears to be posturing for just such a follow-up invasion, one that Americans fear would, in many ways, mirror the second Iraqi invasion. But based on everything we know about Al Qaeda in Iraq, it is but a small faction, a fraction of what might curtail counterinsurgency efforts there led by the Pentagon In Iraq and the Iraqi government.
The problem is really not the Pentagon In Iraq, just as it is not Al Qaeda In Iraq, just as it was not Saddam who bombed the Trade Center on 9/11, in Iraq. Clearly, the problem is becoming Washington In Iraq, which will become, if we're not careful, Washington In Iran. How are Pentagon commanders supposed to explain to the Shiite-led Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki that while Washington might be preparing for a war with Iran, over its nuclear programs, the Pentagon's primary concern is stability in Iraq, which could even be compromised by just such saber-rattling ? Sure the Iranian nuclear program is a concern to the International Community. But notwithstanding an Iraqi government at war with Iran, how can the Pentagon In Iraq justify to the Iraqi government and American people, Washington at war with Iran ?
It makes it appear as if the entire Iraqi endeavor was directed at Iran in the first place, and as if the Iraqi invasion, predicated on the testimony of one, " Curveball," was devoid any redeemingly substantive basis. Saddam never possessed WOMDs, even as the American people continued for at least two years after the invasion to believe otherwise.
That's not to say that Saddam never violated international law, in the early 1980s, as an Iraqi court ruled. But it happened in the context of a war with Iran. So the same arguments that the adminstration uses to justify sex torture with political aims of the kind that were committed at Abu Ghraib, because those acts occurred in the context of a war, coincide with what arguments were long used to justify acts committed by Saddam that were found to be genocidal, more than two decades hence, and not without strategic implication.
Again, if the purpose of invading Iraq was to wage war with Iran, strategically, the idea that Saddam had once committed genocide becomes ever less compelling with respect to the real strategic motive. The fact that Saddam committed genocide becomes nothing more than a convenient truth.
The problem is really not the Pentagon In Iraq, just as it is not Al Qaeda In Iraq, just as it was not Saddam who bombed the Trade Center on 9/11, in Iraq. Clearly, the problem is becoming Washington In Iraq, which will become, if we're not careful, Washington In Iran. How are Pentagon commanders supposed to explain to the Shiite-led Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki that while Washington might be preparing for a war with Iran, over its nuclear programs, the Pentagon's primary concern is stability in Iraq, which could even be compromised by just such saber-rattling ? Sure the Iranian nuclear program is a concern to the International Community. But notwithstanding an Iraqi government at war with Iran, how can the Pentagon In Iraq justify to the Iraqi government and American people, Washington at war with Iran ?
It makes it appear as if the entire Iraqi endeavor was directed at Iran in the first place, and as if the Iraqi invasion, predicated on the testimony of one, " Curveball," was devoid any redeemingly substantive basis. Saddam never possessed WOMDs, even as the American people continued for at least two years after the invasion to believe otherwise.
That's not to say that Saddam never violated international law, in the early 1980s, as an Iraqi court ruled. But it happened in the context of a war with Iran. So the same arguments that the adminstration uses to justify sex torture with political aims of the kind that were committed at Abu Ghraib, because those acts occurred in the context of a war, coincide with what arguments were long used to justify acts committed by Saddam that were found to be genocidal, more than two decades hence, and not without strategic implication.
Again, if the purpose of invading Iraq was to wage war with Iran, strategically, the idea that Saddam had once committed genocide becomes ever less compelling with respect to the real strategic motive. The fact that Saddam committed genocide becomes nothing more than a convenient truth.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA (Paperback)
A sprawling chronicle that details how a clutch of Ivy- educated Wall Street attorneys and their associates--the ``Old Boy network''--created the Central Intelligence Agency and influenced the formative decades of the cold war.
Prelude to Terror: the Rogue CIA, The Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network the Compromising of American Intelligence
1976: CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies Use BCCI to Control and Manipulate Criminals and Terrorists Worldwide
Saudi Intelligence Minister Kamal Adham is given the task. “With the official blessing of George H. W. Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed a small Pakistani merchant bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a world-wide money-laundering machine, buying banks around the world to create the biggest clandestine money network in history.” BCCI was founded in 1972 by a Pakistani named Agha Hasan Abedi, who was an associate of Adham’s. Bush himself has an account at BCCI established while still director of the CIA. French customs will later raid the Paris BCCI branch and discover the account in Bush’s name.
Bhutto: Time for Musharraf to go
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to immediately step down in the wake of a mass crackdown on the opposition this week.
Pakistan ISI officials well aware of Osama's whereabouts, CIA Officer
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may not be knowing about al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's presence within Pakistan's territorial limits, but ISI officials are very well aware about his whereabouts, CIA officer Gary Schroen, who spearheaded US' search for Osama in Afghanistan, has said.
ISI was in bed with Osama: 9/11 commission
July 23, 2004 10:05 IST
Last Updated: July 23, 2004 10:37 IST
While conceding that Pakistan's intelligence service "was in bed with Osama bin Laden", the bipartisan 9/11 Commission has recommended that the US should give long-term military and other aid to Pakistan.
Last Updated: July 23, 2004 10:37 IST
While conceding that Pakistan's intelligence service "was in bed with Osama bin Laden", the bipartisan 9/11 Commission has recommended that the US should give long-term military and other aid to Pakistan.
How George Bush became the new Saddam
Patrick Graham
It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.”
It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.”
Experts: Danger of nuclear-armed Iran may be hyped
By Warren P. Strobel
McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007
WASHINGTON — A hostile country led by anti-American ideologues appears close to developing its first nuclear weapon and, as a U.S. election approaches, the president and his advisers debate a pre-emptive military strike. Newspaper columnists demand action to stop the nuclear peril.
McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007
WASHINGTON — A hostile country led by anti-American ideologues appears close to developing its first nuclear weapon and, as a U.S. election approaches, the president and his advisers debate a pre-emptive military strike. Newspaper columnists demand action to stop the nuclear peril.
Turkish helicopters strike inside Iraq
By YAHYA BARAZANJI, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago
ULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.
16 minutes ago
ULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Commentary: Inexorable march toward war with Iran?
By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007
There were some things far more frightening this week than Halloween's small ghouls and goblins — and the scariest of all is the Bush administration's seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran.
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007
There were some things far more frightening this week than Halloween's small ghouls and goblins — and the scariest of all is the Bush administration's seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran.
PetroChina tops $1 trillion in value, snatches crown from Exxon Mobil
BEIJING — The state-controlled firm PetroChina toppled Exxon Mobil from its perch Monday as the world's most highly valued company as eager Chinese investors briefly pushed its value to $1.1 trillion
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
